Many computer devices use modular components to allow increased flexibility and adaptability to various work environments. This is especially true in the area of small computing device such as hand held computer terminals, vehicle mounted computer terminals and small lap-top computers. Along these lines, small, removable and interchangeable memory cards were developed. The memory cards have now become commonplace and the PCMCIA memory card standard has become accepted industry wide as the format to use.
The PCMCIA memory cards are relative small with a length and width roughly the size of a credit card. The thickness of these cards is more than that of a credit card and there are several thicknesses used for different cards. These cards are designed to slide into a receiving portion of a computer device. At one end of the card is an interface section which is in essence the female portion of a connector which mates with the male end in the receiving device. This connection and design, including the number of pins, layout of the pins, and the pin size for the connection, are all part of the PCMCIA standard.
The success of the removable and interchangeable PCMCIA memory cards has led to the development of other types of peripheral devices which use the same standard. Of particular interest to the present application are the cards which contain radio transceivers. These radio transceiver devices, or radio cards, can be inserted into and connected to a receiving device in the same manner as a memory card. However, with these devices there is an addition connection which must be made to connect the transceiver device to a radio antenna.
Radio frequency communication allows two or more computer terminals to communicate without actually being wired together. Many types of radio communication exist and many different radio frequencies can and must be used to accommodate the different types of radio communication. For example, a radio which operates by sending the information on a single channel in the 902 MHz range differs from a radio which sends its information utilizing spread spectrum frequency hopping in the 2.400-2.483 GHz range. The antennas necessary to operate in the different frequency ranges also differ.
Connection of the radio card to an outside antenna is typically made by either extending the length of the card beyond the standard length with the antenna built into the extended portion or by having an antenna or telephone cable protrude out of the end of the radio card to which the user may attach an antenna or telephone line. These options have significant limitation. Both connections severely limit the type of devices which can accommodate the cards. Most devices cannot accommodate the extra length without some modification and both connections make environmentally sealing the connections difficult. Additionally, both connections are susceptible to increased damage from dropping or other physical trauma. An external antenna to which the user must couple an antenna is inconvenient and subjects the radio to periods of unreliability due to wear of the cable and connection.
As disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/081,411 filed Jun. 22, 1993 by P. Kinney, improving the connection between the radio card and the appropriate antenna can be accomplished by using antenna contacts mounted on the housing of the radio card which encounter corresponding antenna contacts mounted on the receiving portion of the computer device. This solution eliminates the need for extending the length of the radio card and permits the radio card to remain environmentally sealed.
However, while the connection of the radio card to the antenna is solved by the use of these contacts, the flexibility and interchangability of the antennas to compensate for all of the different radio cards is not. Additionally, the contact method as disclosed is not ideally suited for use with computer devices which are designed to accept cards of this type but which do not have the antenna contacts built in or for computer devices which do not have an antenna built in or attached to with which the radio card could be connected.
Thus, there is a need for an improved computer device apparatus for connecting a removable card type radio to a protected, interchangeable, environmentally sealed antenna which uses contacts located on the housing of the radio card.